With the strike by a large section of Air India (AI) pilots entering its third day, the carrier had to cancel 126 flights domestically and internationally which caused the airline a revenue loss of R4.5 crore on Friday.
AI, in a statement said that in an important route like Mumbai-Delhi, the airline flew a jumbo aircraft on Friday which accommodated over 300 passengers, while a normal Boeing or an Airbus can seat 189 passengers. The airline is likely to continue cancelling flights on other routes due to shortage of pilots in the coming days. However, for carrying on flight operations on key metro routes, the airline has roped in the services of 150 executive pilots whose name were not mentioned in the duty roster this week.
AI in a statement said that altogether it had to cancel 226 flights from April 27 till date and has stopped fresh booking since Thursday till the strike is called off. AI operates 320 flights daily on domestic and international sectors daily.
The airline has stopped taking bookings from passengers for the next five days indicating the deadlock to continue at least for the next few days. The top officials in the civil aviation ministry has offered its full support to Air India management headed by its chairman Arvind Jadhav in ensuring the unions do not dictate terms in future.
?Few hundred pilots can not hold the government to ransom. The airline has scaled down its operation in the face of strike. Air India would in the meantime ensure that passengers booked on their network are accommodated on private airlines to minimise inconvenience to traveling public,? a senior civil aviation ministry official said.
The strike is called by Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), a union formed by pilots of erstwhile Indian Airlines before its merger with AI in 2007. There were two rounds of negotiations between ICPA and the AI management but did not throw up any results. ICPA is adamant with its demand for an equal pay structure to that of IPG, which is 30% more then the former.
The AI management says it has already constituted a committee headed by a retired judge DN Dharmadhikari to look into the pay parity issue between IPG and ICPA. This committee which has started meeting various unions at AI will offer a harmonised pay structure, but not before September this year.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time AI is confronted with strike called by its pilots.
